The Taxpayersâ€™ Union believes that questions need to asked about why a lobby group, working with the Maori Party on a political campaign around tobacco plain packaging, is largely taxpayer funded. Â This morningâ€™s front page of the New Zealand Herald covers the latest efforts to build political pressure to introduce a plain packaging law.

Taxpayersâ€™ Union Executive Director, Jordan Williams, says, â€śWhile civil servants operate under a duty of political neutrality, the Ministry of Health and others are awarding substantial sums of taxpayer money to health and environmental lobby groups to push particular political agendas.”

â€śIt is wrong for special interest groups such as ASH to be using taxpayer money for political campaigns. ASH’sÂ factual inaccuracies about the impact of plain packaging on smoking consumption in Australia suggests that they are operating outside any of the usual public sector control requiring balanced and evidenced based public statements.â€ť

According to ASHâ€™s most recent annual return filed with the Charities Register, more than 90% of ASHâ€™s funding comes from the taxpayer.

Mr Williams says, â€śWe all support funding for front line and addiction services such as Quitline. What we donâ€™t support is funding to political organisations to operate campaigns with taxpayer money.”

Failed Puppet master Kim Dotcom is trying to say that our democratically elected government is not making the tough decisions with the mandate of the voters but is controlled by America. Obviously our attacks on The Internet Party still smart as back then we said he was the puppet master both funding and controlling Laila Harre and Hone Harawira.

So errant cricketer Jesse Ryder wants to fight rogue blogger Cameron Slater in a charity punchup in Christchurch next month.

It looks like a match-up made in heaven – but for a few little issues.

The first is that Ryder has not that long ago been in hospital with what appears to be a major head trauma.

He maintains he has had medical clearance but I wonder what the medical staff who looked after him and restored him back to health think of him putting himself at needless risk.

Ryder, who has squandered his natural cricketing talents through ill-discipline, already seems short of a few brain cells and you have to wonder if this is the sort of risk he should be taking.

It may have escaped van Beynen’s attention that this is a charity boxing match, both Jesse and I are getting in the ring for Kidscan…not for anything else, although there is considerable personal physical benefits including rapid weightloss and seeking out a challenge. I’ve nowÂ met Jesse and he has had as torrid a time with media as I have…we are kindred spirits as far as that goes. Â He’s a quiet and humble bloke…not at all that has been portrayed by media scum.

Slater’s participation is not much more than a public-relations stunt.

As one of the country’s most loathed and tainted figures, he may see the fight for charity as a way to make amends and show that deep down he is a brave and worthy bloke who is prepared to front up to the country and redeem himself through pugilism.

I would rather see him redeem himself by spending a year washing dishes in a Salvation Army refuge for the homeless but, I guess, with his good connections in business and elsewhere, he should raise a pretty penny for charity.

Andrea Vance was at great pains to keep her door swipe card data private, she also refused to cough up texts and phone records between her and a minister.

But now in true typical media and left-wing hypocrisy she is demanding the PM coughs up his texts.

In the vaults of Archives New Zealand lies a unique collection of several thousand fading letters, photographs and papers. The Nash Collection offers a window into a world gone by.

Former prime minister Sir Walter Nash became involved in local politics from his arrival in Wellington in 1909. His personal papers are a treasure trove of information about World War II, the birth of the New Zealand Labour Party, as well as every noteworthy issue of the day.

Without them, a hole would exist in the nation’s historical record.

From the same building, chief archivist Marilyn Little will soon start an investigation into the deletion of Prime Minister John Key’s text messages.

Her inquiry stems from a request by the Green Party. It is a spot of political point-scoring, exploiting Key’s embarrassing friendship with hit-job blogger Cameron Slater. But politicking aside, the investigation is truly important.

In the age of the spin doctor, we now rarely know what a politician really thinks. Their response to a crisis is packaged up into palatable soundbites for news bulletins. Biographies, sympathetically penned by acolytes and admirers, have become another election campaign weapon. Â Read more »

Here at Whaleoil we are very big on turning lemons into lemonade. Dirty politics is now a well known brand so I have turned my devious mind towards how best to turn it to advertisers advantage.

First up any products that get dirty would benefit from the Dirty Politics brand or any products that clean up dirt. Not that I can imagine Cameron promoting a vacuum cleaner but maybe if it was a Dyson.

I personally want a hot tub for outside so think that Cameron would be the perfect spokesperson for a hot tub company. He not only lands in hot water regularly, he revels in it. Cut to Cam relaxing in a steaming hot tub looking very pleased with himself while texting the Prime Minister or being interviewed by a harried looking MSM reporter.

Believe it or not this year there were some cartoonists who managed to draw political cartoons about Dirty Politics without including a reference to Whaleoil or Cameron Slater. Their main target was our Prime Minister John Key. He didn’t get as many cartoons about him as Cameron and Whaleoil but he still did pretty well considering that he is important enough to have access to Cameron’s phone number and texts Cameron sometimes ( although Cameron is not pro-active about texting him back and often just replies to be polite )

When asked by the Mainstream Media whether or not he thought it was wise for him to engage with the Prime Minister, Cameron replied that John Key is the leader of the National Party and he gives out his contact details to all Political leaders and Politicians not just John Key. Some may not like John Key but he is recognised as the Prime Minister of New Zealand and therefore deserves the courtesy of access to New Zealand’s number one award winning blogger and journalist.